The rationality issue in land-use planning

There is a strong tradition among land-use planners to conceive of th eir task as one of inserting rationality into public decision making. The idea the rational selection of ends as well as means makes land- use planners reluctant to take goals as given even if they insist on a difference between planning and politics. A retrospective outline s hows how three prominent planning theorists handle the controversial question of rational ends. By applying Habermas' communicative ration ality and the bounded/unbounded distinction, the range of rationality concepts becomes sufficiently wide to serve as a basis for classifyi ng most popular planning modes. With multiple forms of rationality, s ome new problems arise. How are we, for instance, to rationally choos e among forms of rationality in a given situation, and how can the va rious forms be applied simultanwously?